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← Return to Yoga for Well-Being in hEDS/HSD
Newsfeed PostNewsfeed Post in blog Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Yoga for Well-Being in hEDS/HSD Dec 23, 2023 | By Samantha Campbell (@samanthacmaa)Comment receiving replies
I am wondering what the support is to say that yoga is good for people with EDS hypermobile. The way it has been explained to me, it clearly is not. I mean, if all you're talking about is meditation and breathing in poses, it might be okay, depending on the pose. But even the health of meditation can be questioned. (Is it good to focus on removing yourself from the world? For some people, this could actually encourage unhealthy withdrawal.)
People with hypermobility are not mobile in every joint, nor hypermobile the same amount. So, the hypermobile person is going to stretch the joint which is the most mobile. Exactly what you don't want to do. It has been explained to me, by people who say 'yoga is good for everything', that you don't stretch that much. I wonder why exactly, you would do the cobra pose and not stretch. Is this called "not stretching cobra"?
Yoga is generally not good for people with hypermobility. Meditation is not good for "everybody". They happen to be very cheap to teach with lots of teachers ill equipped to deal with something so complicated as hypermobility.
However, these integrated medicine departments seem so happy to push it on every patient. It is so much easier then dealing with the complex reality which is hypermobility.
I would ask that, since these articles are supposed to be related to medicine, that the people writing them would please supply peer reviewed articles from respected medical journals.
Replies to "I am wondering what the support is to say that yoga is good for people with..."
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Welcome, @cierann. You are so right. Everyone is different. While some yoga postures may be right for one person with EDS, they may not be right for another. EDS is as individual as the person themselves.
Dr. Munipalli agrees and underlines:
"If a person with hypermobility is practicing yoga, they should avoid prolonged passive stretching at end range, avoid positions that could cause shoulder dislocation and remember that the focus on practicing yoga is more for the inner experience than performance. Yoga supports patients with hypermobility by providing calming to the nervous system, mind-body focus, self-care, stability particularly with smaller and slower movements. It also helps patients with hypermobility to be conscious of not stretching excessively which promotes injury."
As the blog post states, Mayo Clinic uses "the physical therapy guidelines (https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/ehlers-danlos-syndrome/newsfeed-post/exercise-for-heds-and-hsd/) to prevent joint injury, just as we do for any exercises. Low impact is better, and yoga is included in that category with swimming, walking, elliptical, etc”
Any physical activity can be dangerous to a point, even “low impact“ activities. So if anyone feels like they need more individual guidance, they should consult a therapist who is familiar with treating hypermobility.
Personally, I do not regard meditation as removing myself from the world, but rather connecting with it. Again, this underlines how everyone is different as you said. 🙂
Ann, I like to get to know more about you? Do you live with EDS? If yes, how long? What activities do you like to do?